ABOUT

I was born and raised around Niles, Michigan, and when I was five years old my dad bought me my first firearm. It was a Daisy BB gun and I was hooked. That winter I shot my first rabbit with my dad’s 22 rifle. I’ve been hunting 57 years now and love it more every year of my life. I am blessed with the most wonderful wife any man could have, two great children and three grandsons. I attended Western Michigan University and later worked in the plastics industry as a Quality Control Manager.

I love to hunt pheasants, grouse, woodcock, turkeys, ducks, geese and deer in Michigan, Snows in Missouri and have enjoyed North Dakota for pheasant’s, sharp-tail’s and ducks. After spending too much money and time trying to buy the perfect game call, I finally realized I was never going to be satisfied with the available choices. My obsessive pursuit led me to develop Fatboys Custom Game Calls, calls even a perfectionist like me is proud to put my name on. After handling and listening to a Fatboys Custom Game Call, I know you will agree I have developed a great sounding call from the most beautiful wood and materials available. My work experience as a Quality Control manager underscores my ability to produce hunting calls that rival the sound quality and call-to-call consistency of anyone in the industry. Whether you are tempting an illusive tom to your decoy, pursuing that trophy whitetail or closing the distance to your water foul spread, I can hand make a call that will compliment any collection. And you will have an heirloom quality call to hand down to the next generation of hunter.

I read somewhere that there were three stages in a hunter’s growth. The first stage is shooting as much game as you can. The second stage is about trophies and how big they are. The third stage isn’t about harvesting an animal at all, it’s about enjoying the outdoor experience with great friends and family. Harvesting an animal is just a bonus! When I discovered game call making it allowed me a fourth stage in my life’s journey and that is the pleasure of making hunting calls that enable others to be better hunters and to make their hunting journey more enjoyable. I will do everything in my power to make the best sounding and highest quality call that I can produce for you. Give me a chance to make your journey as great as mine has been.

The National Wild Turkey Federation, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Ducks Unlimited are organizations I support avidly. Please find a group that you agree with their principles and support that group as much as you can. We all need to do as much as we can to ensure our children will be able to participate in our great sport of hunting.

In 2011 I was featured on The Sportsman Channel on the show Factory to Field. I can’t thank Paul Ranft, The American Outdoorsman and the Sportsman Channel enough for the opportunity to show my calls to the hunters in America.

WHY CUSTOM?

Do you care about the color of the next truck you buy? Do you shoot the same shotgun shells for Turkeys, Ducks, Doves and Deer? Then why buy a mass produced hunting call that sounds like the other 10,000 packaged last year for this hunting season? If you are serious about being a successful hunter, take pride in your equipment and know enough about hunting to have an opinion, you need to have your game calls made to your requirements and not mass produced. I play every hand made call to make sure it sounds great or I don’t sign my name on it. My philosophy is, “The sound sells the call”! If you want the best sounding call you’ve ever heard, try one of mine. If you want something beautiful, and a call you’ll love to play, give me a call and we’ll design something special. If you’re not sure what you want or don’t know how to play a specific call, please give me a call and we will talk about your needs and options.

Turkey Calls:
Individually matched striker and surface combinations produce superior acoustics and surface resonance, subtle clucks and purrs to aggressive cuts and raspy yelps. Strikers are made from a combination of exotic woods, acrylic and arrow shafts. Scratch boxes are available for a compact box call with exceptional range and acoustic tones.

Grunt Tubes:
Individual needs in grunt tubes vary greatly yet there are fewer choices available than any other game call on the market. Most grunt tubes are adjustable for tone from mature buck, to doe and fawn. The most important adjustments should be volume of the call and amount of air required to make the call produce sound. Minimum volume and amount of air required is limited by the thickness or stiffness of the reed in the call. On request I will shave the reed similar to how you shave a short reed goose call to achieve the sound that you want. Both subtle tones and aggressive grunts can be achieved with my calls.

Duck and Goose Calls:
Every waterfowl hunter has their own requirements for their calls. Whether you hunt greaters or lessers, blue or green, timber or grain fields, I will build your call to your specs and out of the exact type or piece of wood that you desire.

Predator calls:
I produce Rabbit Squealers and Coyote Howlers out of any wood that
you desire… as long as it sounds great.

SEMINARS

If your organization, business or group would like specialized instruction and a live calling demonstration, give me a call! I’ll cover a range of topics and techniques, some of which are off-the-wall but effective. We’ll talk about how to kill that first turkey, how to be successful at calling in those impossible birds, and address any questions you might have about specific challenges you’ve faced in the field. If you’re interested in a call making demonstration, I will set up my lathe at your organizational meeting or show venue to show how a turkey call, deer grunt tube, cow elk call and many others are produced in my shop. A sampling of woods and materials will be on hand to showcase the possibilities of custom call making.